Retired General Calls Trump's ISIS Strategy 'Sophomoric'

Lookups for 'sophomoric' spiked after Hertling used it to describe Trump's approach to national security

Sep 7, 2016

Donald Trump’s recent comments on national security included his plan to defeat terrorism:

I am going to convene my top generals and give them a simple instruction: They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for defeating ISIS.

Lookups for 'sophomoric' spiked after retired army general Mark Hertling called Trump's approach to national security "sophomoric."

Speaking to Anderson Cooper on CNN, retired army general Mark Hertling reacted to Trump’s idea by pointing out that the military have been trying to defeat ISIS for years, and that many would take offense at the notion that they haven’t. He added:

It's a sophomoric approach to elements of national security policy.

Sophomoric means “conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature.” It’s the adjective form of sophomore, which probably comes from the combination of the Greek words sophos ("wise") and mōros ("foolish")—clearly, it was felt that students in their second year had learned a bit of wisdom, but not enough to keep them from being foolish.